LONG BEACH – Endorsements have begun for the Long Beach City Council election, and the decisions must have been fairly easy ones this year.

With only one of the four council members up for re-election on April 8 facing a challenger on the ballot, there are few options.

The Long Beach Firefighters Local 372 announced this week it is backing all of the incumbents.

Council members up for re-election are Suja Lowenthal of the 2nd District, Patrick O’Donnell of the 4th District, Dee Andrews of the 6th District and Rae Gabelich of the 8th District.

Only Andrews faces a challenger, businessman Ahmed Saafir, who ran in the May special election that put Andrews in office. Saafir placed third.

The firefighters union said in a statement that the incumbents have represented their districts and community well and that they all have shown a commitment to public safety.

Andrews also received an endorsement this week from a former opponent of his in the May special election, Edward Acevedo, a teacher with Long Beach Unified School District.

Acevedo said Wednesday he decided to throw his support behind Andrews, rather than his hat in the ring again, because Andrews is a “genuine” councilman who doesn’t have ulterior motives and is responsive to residents’ needs.

“To me, Dee has shown his dedication and his call to address the issues of people of the 6th District,” Acevedo said. “Dee has provided a fresh, energetic and in many ways insightful voice for those residents.”

Scherer Park improvements

On Tuesday, the council unanimously approved a resolution that will allow use of redevelopment funds for improvements at Scherer Park in North Long Beach.

The resolution was needed because the park is just outside the North Long Beach Redevelopment Project Area. The funds would be used for the planning and design of a possible new community center at the park, but other sources would fund the construction, city staffers said.

The council’s vote determined that the improvements would benefit the project area and surrounding neighborhoods, that there is no other financing available and that using the redevelopment funds will help eliminate blight, according to the meeting agenda.

Lowenthal closes field office

To help the city save money, Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal has closed her field office at 727 Pine Ave., she has announced.

The city has been struggling to balance its budget and has been making cutbacks. Tennant did not have immediately available on Wednesday how much the closure will save the city.

Lowenthal’s staff shares the field office with the Centro CHA non-profit group, which has a contract with the city. The Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine actually foots the rental bill. The lease for the site is up at the end of April, Tennant said.

But Lowenthal’s office still pays for utilities, office supplies, computers and other costs.

The site is less than a mile from City Hall, where Lowenthal’s main office is located, and is her only field office. Lowenthal represents the 1st District, which encompasses the southwestern area of Long Beach roughly north of Ocean Boulevard, south of Pacific Coast Highway and stretching at its farthest point west to Almond Avenue.

With the office closure, Lowenthal’s office plans to have weekly community meetings at various locations in the 1st District, said Niki Tennant, her chief of staff.

A water conservation message

In its efforts to cut residents’ water use, the Long Beach Water Department has been distributing fliers printed in three languages – English, Spanish and Khmer – about the city’s new water-use rules.

The fliers have been sent to every address in the city, about 145,000 of them, according to Water Department spokesman Ryan Alsop.

“We’re hoping to remind everybody that these prohibitions are still in effect and will be for some time going forward,” Alsop said.

The Board of Water Commissioners instituted the new rules in September to help curb water use as the region faces a continuing water shortage.

The rules include prohibitions against washing down surfaces with a hose unless the hose has a water-conserving pressurized cleaning device, limitations on landscape irrigation to three days each week and other restrictions.